She's real
by NuABONo
Summary: Cypha has come back from the dead. No one else can see her but Signum and it's up to her to stop Cypha once and for all.
1. Chapter 1

The crescent moon, partially hidden behind dark clouds in the night sky. The sounds of the the Yagami household silent. Even the one who is awake. Signum sits on the couch before the floating screens showing three images: A bridge, a park, and a museum. She looked at the time which read 12:00. Signum closed her eyes in thought with her chin in her hands resting her elbows on the table in front.

Signum hears the sound of the door opening making her turn around seeing Zafira walking in. He yawned covering his mouth with his hand. It was rare for him to be in his human form.

"You're still up," he said half awake.

"I've got work to do," Signum replied.

Zafira mulls this over for a second. He looks at the screen not a soul in any of the pictures.

"Whatever you're looking for is probably asleep like you should be." Zafira walks out of the room. "Good night." He walks out and locks the door.

Signum continues to ponder the things in front of her. She gets up and goes down to the basement. She turns on the light. The bulb lights up illuminating the room. She looks around, the room filled with boxes. She immediately walks to one taking the lid off. She searches through the contents. The box contained Cypha's weapon, the Divider-944, and also her eyepatch. Signum regards the items for a moment and lifts the device for a good look, stirring up clouds of dust as she does so. Her lungs protest slightly making her cough.

Suddenly a voice takes her by surprise. "She's not coming back you know. That's all that's left of her. Nothing but dust."

"We can't be sure," Signum said gripping the device tighter

"It's over, Signum. Cypha's gone."

The alarm goes off accompanied by flashing red light.

"Trouble."


	2. Chapter 2

The crescent moon among the night's cloud cover shines bright in the sky. An explosion flashes among the trees at a mountain road At the blast site, freely smashed vehicles burn in the road as several people hide behind cover.

The wreckage is swept aside and replaced by a thick furry leg. With a roar it slams it's hands into the ground, and the people hiding disappear as the ground buckles. They end up tumbling against the guard rail.

Now the beast has lifted one of the vehicles with a roar, but a Steel ball to the chest catches him off guard. More shots drive him back a longer distance, but he finally gets his footing.

"Drop it, before we drop you," a mad Hayate said.

The Woken family have arrived at the scene. The beast throws the vehicle at them, where Shamal stops it cold and tears it apart with a swing of her hand. The Yagami family charge, Vita charging through with Eisen, Zafira becoming a wolf. An ice dagger barrage drills into the igneous chest and is followed by Vita's hammer crashing against the beast's square head. Before the beast can react, the wolf rams it, bulldozing him all the way to the guardrail with enough force to snap it. After a moment's teetering on the precipice, the behemoth regains its balance and flings the wolf aside. Signum avoids the hurtling wolf, who crashes into a tree. Sword out, a yell on her lips, She flies up high over the battlefield as lightning rips the sky. Laevatein and the beast's fist meet in a blinding flash. The enormous monster comes around and punches Signum to the ground. One giant foot stomps Signum, leaving a deep crater under the fire knight. But she wasn't done she had put a shield up holding up the foot.

Signum struggles to lift it off. The beast lifting one fist to finish her off. Rein binds the beast. Under the binds the beast is pushed back towards the guard rail by a swing of Vita's hammer. Signum soon joins them, popping up from the crater taking aim with her bow and fires. Hayate watches the attacks, which comes to a very abrupt end when the monster thrashes his entire body to send the guard rail flying through the air. It lashes Hayate and Vita to the ground as they skid across the broken pavement.

Signum regains her strength and twirls her sword in her hand, and Zafira comes out to lend a hand. The beast gets a punch at his feet and a flurry of sword swings to the head. Next Zafira goes up into the sky to try another high powered strike, but he is swatted down. The humongous beast leaps up impossibly high and comes straight down towards Signum. Standing in the giant, growing shadow, the knight flies for her life but is thrown upwards by the shock waves of the beast's impact. She goes flying over the guard rail.

A fresh roar greets the other knights as they regroup. In a blink Zafira becomes a wolf, and he lets go with a thundering bellow while the others charge. The beast does likewise. As the six rush towards each other another infernal explosion rocks the place.

As Signum lifts her head, something black swishes past and surprises her back to full consciousness. Standing up with her trusty weapon in hand, she braces for action but is met by nothing but lightning for a moment. Suddenly her eyes widen; after the next flash of lightning, she clearly sees Cypha standing behind a tree, intact and with a brand-new Divider-944 firmly in her hand. It would appear that the leader's fear was justified after all

"Cypha!"

She rushes, the sword put in the scabbard, but her enemy easily outdistances her and leaps towards the treetops. The chase moves into the upper reaches of the forest, with Cypha staying well ahead.

"Stop," Signum calls out.

Cypha does no such thing. Signum readies her sword and lets fly. Signum slashes, but her sword stops on a thick branch. After a crack of lightning Cypha is gone, leaving the sword stuck deep in the tree trunk. Her mind reeling as this super-quick escape, Signum pulls her weapon free just before the drenching rain begins, soaking her to the skin.

"Too slow, Signum," said Cypha watching the knight form a high branch. The rain does not splash off her armor, but seems to disappear on contact. "You always were."

Signum grip her sword tighter. "I knew you'd come back"

Signum rushes to strike, but a lighting strike give Cypha the cover she need to leap away across the high boughs. Off they go, working steadily up the height of a colossal old tree and then transversing the forest once more. Not one of Signum's attacks hit anything but air. Finally they stop at opposite ends of a thick limb. Signum gasps for air.

"Already out of breath," taunted Cypha. "Don't tell me you've gotten soft." Signum growls in frustration preparing to attack. "Save your energy. You're going to need it. I merely freed the beast to get your attention. And now that I have it..."

"What are you planning," Signum questioned."

"Seismic generators," Cypha holds a controller in her hand. "Three of them. One at the bridge, the park, and the museum. They are placed on fault lines all over the city. And in three short hours they'll trigger an earthquake so magnificent, it will break your city in two.

"Not if I break you first." With a fresh yell Signum charges and begins swinging her sword as if trying to break every home run record ever set. Cypha evades the strikes with ease, then divides off the branch. The knight follows and throws her sword like a javelin. The criminal stands as it hurtles down at her head-and then is suddenly gone amid the glare of a lightning strike. The sword sticks in the ground, and Signum lands near it. Sullen frustration is stenciled on her face in big block letters as she moved to pull her weapon free.

"Uh, sorry to interrupt your little nature hike, but... WHERE WERE YOU!?" Vita said gripping her head tightly. The other knights are with her drenched by the rain. "We had to finish off the beast by ourselves, in the rain and... ACHOO!" Vita violently sneezed. "Great now I have a cold," she said congested.

Signum put her sword in her scabbard. "Cypha. She's back."

"You sure it was her?" Hayate said. "I mean, Zafira told me you kinda have Cypha on your mind lately. Maybe-"

"It was her," Signum interrupted. "She's going to create a massive earthquake, and we have have three hours to stop it.

The whole family had a hard time with this. Vita sniffles loudly- that cold set in very quickly indeed.

"I don't get it," says Hayate. "Cypha was taken down and killed. Who lives through something like that."

"Apparently Cypha," said Shamal.

"Yeah. She's pretty... pretty..." Vita violently sneezes three times, then wipes the snot from her nose. "Slippery."

"We'll worry about how he survived later. Right now all that matters is how we stop her," Signum said. "Vita check out the bridge. Zafira take the park and Hayate take Rein and Agito to the museum. Shamal we're going after Cypha.


	3. Chapter 3

Signum walks through the forest with Shamal following behind.

"Fear not Signum. We will stop her," encouraged Shamal.

"It's either that or the city get split in half."

"Hey, Signum I'm at the museum," Hayate said telepathically.

"Did you find the seismic generator?" Asked Signum.

"I can't find diddly. No signs of anything unusual."

"I can't find anything either," said Zafira.

"I got nothing," Vita said her voice still congested. "ACHOO!"

"They're there. Keep searching."

"Achoo! Achoo! ACHOO!"

"I told them exactly where Cypha put generators. I should've gone to find them myself," said Signum annoyed at how the others could not complete the simple task.

"They will be found," Shamal encouraged. "You must have faith in your-"

Lighting. Signum staring straight ahead, Shamal looking at her back. Without a word she charges off.

"Signum?"

Signum dashes towards her target, then comes to a stop as she skids on the squishy dirt facing her archenemy.

"Tick-tock, Signum. This is going to be easier than I thought," said Cypha. "You've gotten sloppy while I was away."

This taunt spurs Signum into a yelling charge, accompanied by laevatein chain. It dashes forward towards the figure and causes an explosion at her feet, but she does not even twitch. As the smoke clears the knight rushes through it but it is easily sidestepped. Cypha stops the next attack and counters with a swing of her device which drives Signum to her knees. A steel-clad foot comes down next, but the flaming general quickly dodges it. Signum swings her sword low down which Cypha avoids without difficulty. The knight slowly gets up. The evil villain appears behind her, raises her device, and knocks Signum flat.

"Shamal! Stop her," Signum shouts out to Shamal as she chases Cypha out of the forest.

Cypha charges past, but Shamal looks wildly around as if still trying to figure out where she is. Down comes Signum after a moment, finding nothing rain-soaked land as far as the eye can see. Signums clenches her teeth in frustrated fury. Shamal looks around, still trying to bend her brain around what has happened, and Signum seizes her arm, startling a gasp out of her.

"What happened!" Signum shouted angrily. Her hands were clamped into her flesh.

"You're hurting me!" Shamal cried out.

"Cypha ran right by you! How could you let her get away!?" Signum tugged violently on the blonde's arm.

Shamal tears up. "But... Signum... there was no one there." Her puzzlement was now explained: she never saw Cypha.

But Signum had no clue what to make of her words.


	4. Chapter 4

The torrential rain continues as Vita flies over the skyscrapers of the city as she makes her way to her family at the curb. She sneezes making her lose concentration on flight causing her to crash down on to the ground.

"I've looked everywhere," said Vita. "I think Cypha sent us on a-a-ACHOO!"

"Wild goose chase," Rein finished.

"Can I please go lie down?" Vita asked.

Hayate checks the monitors. "I've ran a complete sweep of the city's seismics faults. They're all clean. I'm thinking this seismic-generator stuff is just another one of Cypha's tricks.

Shamal lands behind Hayate. "I am not so certain that Cypha is the one behind this."

"What's happened? Where's Signum?" asked Agito.

"Signum... has elected to search on her own," said Shamal.

"Huh? Why?" Asked Rein.

"She said she saw Cypha. I tried to see her, I truly did, but I could not." Shamal started to tear up. "I've never seen Signum so angry... so angry at me."

"let's go find Signum," Hayate said.

* * *

A long stretch of twisted wreckage, lit by a red glow and a few shafts of light from overhead. Suddenly the door falls off the hinges, revealing Signum on the other side. She looks around warily and advances across the floor. She ducks under a low pipe and passes beneath a catwalk, with Cypha standing on the railing. Signum continues walking and the catwalk becomes deserted. The knight recognises the place as a destroyed base

He finally reaches a large chair on a raised platform. Signum's steel-soled foot stirs up dust, while she rubs a finger along the chair arm and eyes the residue on. Signum crosses in front of shatter pieces of glass, throwing her image all across all of them as if in a hall of mirrors. Behind her, in the distance, Cypha drops into view. Signum spins into a run, seeing it as a race along a broken catwalk, and gives chase.

When she skids to a stop and cranes her neck towards the walkway, she sees nothing but the snapped railing and fractured planking. The dark woman whips past behind her, and Signum beats feet again and stops near a swinging gear axle.

"So here we are," Cypha says. "The old haunt. Just the two of us."

"Cypha! Show yourself!" Shouted Signum angrily. "Come out and fight."

Signum spots Cypha standing atop a mountain of smashed gears.

"Relax, Signum. I'm not going anywhere."

The pink knight flies up to Cypha. As she reaches the top the villain has disappeared. The change in weight distribution causes an axle to slide out of position, triggering a partial collapse of the pile. Signum is thrown downward, as are a few gear wheels, and she barely manages to stay ahead of the avalanche. She hits the ground in a crouch, then comes up for a dead run. Behind him, the biggest gear of the bunch topples over and crushes flat down. The impact dumps him flat and skids him up against some other debris. No time for a rest, tough another wheel rolls by, too close for comfort, and she rolls away to avoid being crushed by its fall.

"Brings back memories, doesn't it," says Cypha with a laugh.

"All I remember is how much I hated you!" Said Signum angered.

Cypha laughs again. "What I remember is that you couldn't kill me, yet alone defeat me... at least not all alone."

Signum picks her way through the chaos and stops at an electrical breaker. The throw of the switch causes much more light to pour from overhead, she stares up at the emergency lamp that has come on. After a few flickering moments, the bulb explodes with a flash-and Cypha is suddenly there behind her.

"Pitty that your family are of no use to you."

"Why couldn't Shamal see you?" Signum asked.

"I believe you are familiar with cloaking spells."

"I'm familiar with all your tricks. That's why you're not going to get away with it."

"But even if I didn't cloak myself Shamal still wouldn't be able to see me." Signum was puzzled as to what Cypha said. "She's afraid of me. She would pretend that I was still dead and not breathing the air I breathe today. She's scared of my power and of what I can do, and she has every right to be scared, just like you should be."

Signum yells and charges in to try a quick string of blows, swinging Laevatein as quickly as she can, but Cypha dodges all of them and flees. Signum goes after her for a few steps. then stops and looks at some of the light entering from the ruined ceiling. Nothing there, now she gazes elsewhere seeing Cypha fly away, losing sight of her. The leader of the Wolkenritter starts off that way, but turns around to go back the way she came. Signum stops hearing Cypha's voice, spotting her standing on top of a gear.

"Our time apart may have made you soft, but it's only made me stronger," says Cypha. She jumps from one gear to another, ending up parched on a tilted wheel whose axle still runs through it. When Signum does likewise to pursue, the gears she pushes off from collapse under her weight. Cypha jumps from her position landing near the snapped end of the catwalk and stands to look back at the Signum. The pink knight lands on the same platform.

"You're family won't find the generators, and they can't see me," Cypha slowly walks towards Signum. "They can't see the truth, even when it's right in front of them."

Signum readies Laevatein. "Then I'll have to take care of you myself! I've stopped you before."

"Signum if you've "stopped" me then why am I still here."

Signum yells as she charges, every swing that comes Cypha's way is a gutter ball. The attacks stop when Cypha catches Signum's blade, then throws it down to the ground leaving the knight vulnerable. Signum quickly reaches for her sword only to be stopped when her hand is grabbed by her opponent. A cruel squeeze set the bones grinding against each other. Cypha releases the knight and swings her device at her which drives Signum back. The pink knight rushes to retrieve her sword, and she does so successfully. Laevatein is set aflame and Signum swings her swords hitting a whole load of nothing. Cypha moves back and swings her weapon, but Signum blocks the attack with a shield. The Divider wielding woman pushes the knight back further than last time.

"You can't even touch me," Cypha taunted. "How can you save a city when you can't save yourself?"

A devastating attack puts the pink knight on the floor. It takes Signum some moments to rise, at which point she is struck back down. She attempts to get back up but the end of her hair is seized and she is slammed to the ground once more. Now Cypha gets a handful of Signum's knight armour and drags her up by it. The Divider is stabbed through her stomach. Signum pops in surprise, and she get nailed with a blow that pushes her back.

Signum is on her feet and steadily backing up before Cypha's advances. She takes one hit after another, putting up no resistance, and is finally driven against a propped up gear wheel. The force of the impact leaves him her barely able to straighten up and another hand reaches down for her, it delivers a killer left hook. Another crushing blow, then a third, and the pink knight is left crawling away as fast as she can-that is, very slow. Cypha grabs Signum by her legs and lifts her up.

* * *

Inside a passage the Yagami family (excluding Signum) rush quickly.

"I think Signum's near by," says Agito.

Through the walls they hear Signum's scream of pain and a couple of loud crashes.

"Very near by."

They hear Signum grunting as she backs woozily into their sight, and it seems she is in rather bad shape, judging from her damaged armour.

"Signum!" Shamal shouts out.

The spectators stare as they see Signum stagger backwards across the floor. Cypha is nowhere in sight, but the angry knight continues to react as if being ruthlessly pummeled by the enemy.

"Um, since when is Signum into mime?" Says Vita.

Signum whirls to face them, exposing her injuries to her armour and body which includes one eye nearly swollen shut.

"CYPHA!"

The Yagami family prepare to attack. Their magical power illuminates the place which exposes everything of the base, but Cypha is not in sight.

What are you doing?! You're supposed to be finding the generators!" Signum shouted angrily.

"I don't think there are any generators. We looks everywhere," replies Hayate.

"Cypha must be cloaking them, just like she's cloaking herself. That's why you couldn't see her!"

"But if I could not see her, why could you?" Asked Shamal.

Signum paused, stunned at the question. "What are you trying to say?"

"Are you really sure you really saw Cypha?" Hayate asks unsure of the situation.

"Saw her? I fought her!" Signum then points to her injuries. "Do you think I did this to myself?"

"This is the only way out, and we were standing here the whole time. No one got past us," said Vita yawning.

"No one was on here but us," says Hayate.

"I don't have time for this," Signum said. "I have to find those generators."

The pink knight walks to the exit, but is blocked by the much smaller Vita.

"There are no generator! There is no Cypha!" The mini knight screamed.

"I know what I saw!" Signum backs up. "I have to stop her! I'm the only one who can!" Signum sets Laevatein aflame. "And I'll take down anyone who gets in my way!"

The Yagami family stare wide-eyed at the sudden outburst of murderous rage. A green blast hit Signum in the back, and she collapses smoking to the floor. Shamal had moved around the knight to deliver the shot. Shamal was absolutely devastated about having committed the act of mutiny. With and almost inaudible groan, Signum lifts her head a bit and opens her eyes, but drops back down.


	5. Chapter 5

Signum awakens and sees a different ceiling. She hears the storm from outside. She lies on a bed in a dark room and struggles against the magical binds which keep her down. Signum spots many computer screens surrounding her which show her physical and mental state. This is the infirmary. Signum suddenly hears a conversation from outside.

"But must we keep her restrained," says Agito

"She threatened us, Agito," replied Rein. "She's dangerous."

"Dangerous?" Says Vita. "Try totally flipped out coo coo labonza!" She sneezes and falls back with a crash.

"We should run a few tests on her," says Shamal. "And figure what's going on."

"Alone again Signum," The words set off a fight against the binds. Signum spots Cypha in the shadows. "As long as I'm around... you are never alone." Signum struggles against the binds. "Relax, Signum." Cypha raises her weapon above her head. "I promise you won't feel a thing."

* * *

Shamal monitors Signum, while the other try to come up with a reason about Signum

"Have you uncovered the cause of Signum's behavior?" Asked Agito.

Shamal presses a few button on the screen which show Signum's signs "So far, everything looks normal," she replies. "But she is not normal! Signum would not do these things. She would not threaten her family, she would not shout at me. There is a cause and we must find it."

"Shamal, I'm sure there's a good explanation, okay. Maybe Cypha really is invisible and we just can't-"

"No." Hayate interrupted. "She would've shown up on the screen."

Suddenly the heart rate accelerates and the screen begins to flash red.

"Her heart rate is off the charts!" shouts out Agito.

"Blood pressure, neural kinetics... most people can't survive this kind of stress."

"Signum!"

The Yagami family dash to the infirmary.

A gasp from Shamal.

"Wow," said a shocked Vita.

They see that there is nothing on the bed. Signum has somehow managed to free herself and clear out of the place.

"And I thought I didn't like going to the doctors," joked Vita.

Shamal walks over to the bed and lifts a couple of sensors that were affixed to Signum.

"Where has Signum gone?" Shamal asks. They hear a loud thump from above.

Hayate points at the direction of the sound. "Up there!"

An air vent hangs open on its hinges, marking Agito's escape route into the duct work. It takes Agito only a moment to fly up after her master, but before she can enter the passage, a metal sheet slides across to block it and she crashes head-on into this. Similar barricades come down over all the windows and so does the door, which gets sealed off as well.

Agito falls down on to the ground, leaving a bump on her head.

"Signum has activated the quintian protocol. Nothing can get in or out," says Zafira.

"Vita do you think you can try and break the wall?" asks Hayate. But there was no reply. "Vita.." Hayate scanned the room for the young knight, and found her resting on the bed finally getting what she wanted. "Okay... so maybe we can't get out. Well I could try one of my spells."

"I don't think that is necessary," Shamal interjected. "I think I can find Signum from here." The blonde knight switched to her knight armour and sat down on the bed with Vita quietly resting behind her.

"What are you doing?" Rein asks.

"Finding Signum."

"Who knew Shamal could do that," said Agito.

Shamal chants some words to prepare for the spell.

On the word 'mustern' she opens her eyes and her "soul self" materialises and soars towards the ceiling. It passes through the sheet closing off the air vent. It moves quickly through the ducts, moving quickly along and around the corners, and straight to Signum and goes inside her.

"Signum..." Shamal says telepathically. "I'm here to help you."

"Shamal!" Signum screams out loud. "What are you... you have to get out! Cypha! She'll destroy you!"

"Signum, your heart. You're in danger. You have to trust me. Cypha isn't here. She's not in the tower."

"No! She's here! She's real! I've seen her!"

"Then let me see her through your eyes." Signum takes a few deep breaths, she closes her eyes and when she opens them again, Shamal's purple pupils have appeared replacing her own.

"See, Signum?," Shamal scans the area around Signum. "There's no one here. There never was." Shamal checks again but she sees Cypha and she swings her weapon straight towards Signum.

Back at the infirmary Shamal snaps out of her trance and with a scream she hurls backwards to the floor. She sits up with a terrified gasp.

"CYPHA!"

"You saw her," asked Hayate shocked at the sudden name.

"I don't know if she's real or not, but she's real to Signum and that's all that matters," explained Shamal. "The stress on her brain is destroying her body. Signum truly believes she's fighting Cypha... and Cypha is winning."

* * *

Down in the basement Signum comes up for an attack on Cypha, but she is thrown down the stairs. Cypha charges at her and delivers a kick that forces the wind out of Signum's lungs. The knight's next couple of attacks it nothing, her wrist is seized, and her arm is bent viciously up behind her back. Bones grind against one another as Cypha applies leverage in just the right spot, afterwhich Signum is flung over the rail, but she drops her sword. She land on the hard ground with a bump.

Signum looks around, having briefly lost sight of the opponent who keeps getting the upper hand. Cypha leaps from the stairs and throws her weapon on Signum, piercing right through her shoulder. Cypha lands on the ground and gives Signum a kick, and then removes her weapon from the corpse.

The half-conscious knight is hauled up by her pink hair and is thrown into a stack of boxes which stop her from rolling across the basement. One of the overhead lights flicker a bit and each time it comes on, Cypha disappeared. This continues as she walks towards Signum who tries to crawl away.

"You always knew it was going to end this way," Cypha chuckled. She grabs Signum's hair again to deliver a final, fatal blow.

"No," Signum said weakly.

* * *

"Signum!" Shamal sits cross-legged on the bed, having snapped out of a fresh trance. Vita is working on the sealed vent, using Graf Eisen to try and break through. "I can feel her. She's not going to make it."

"Then let's end this battle!" Vita gives up on the vent and changes Graf Eisen to its destruction form and drills through the floor. "NOW!" There was now a giant hole in the floor, and the Yagami family dive down to rescue Signum.

* * *

"Cypha... stop." Signum reaches towards the bottom basement step. A kick sends her tumbling away. Cypha moves slowly towards the collapsed knight.

"No, Signum," More light flickers which temporarily makes her vanish. "I won't stop. Not now. Not ever." Cypha kneels over Signum. "I am the thing that keeps you up at night." Cypha hauls the knight up. "The evil that haunts every dark corner of your mind. I will never rest... and neither will you."

"My family say... you're not real."

"Oh, I'm very much real." She shoves Signum away into a girder. More flickering as she approaches. "Could you have gotten all those bruises from someone who wasn't there. You can't even touch me."

"All these... bruises... but you don't have a scratch."

"There was no one there!"

"There are no generators. There is no Cypha."

"I am the thing that keeps you up at night. The evil that haunts every dark corner of your mind."

Flicker, and another brief disappearance, and Singum has hooked an arm around a girder to drag herself partway up. The pieces of the puzzle, starting with Cypha's impermeability to rain and ending with recalled words, are finally snapping together in her brain.

"Every dark corner... you're only in my mind... only in the dark." Signum straightens up. "My friends are right. You aren't real."

Cypha charges towards Singum. "I'm real enough to finish you!"

Signum throws the circuit breaker switch and the area is instantly flooded with light.

"Lights out, Cypha."

Shamal flies over to the pink knight who has had the everloving bejesus beaten out of her five times over.

"Singum."

"It's okay, Shamal," Signum reassured. "It's okay." The others come in.


	6. Chapter 6

Signum sits on the bed, sensors hooked up to her forehead.

"Looks like Cypha pulled off one last trick," says Shamal. "Her device contained a chemical that infiltrated you nervous system."

"The dust. It made me see, hear and feel Cypha, even though she wasn't there," said a surprised Signum.

"And the more you fought, the more harm it did to you," says Shamal.

Hayate rubbed her chin. "And anybody else who got in the way."

"The scan says you're all clear now, though," said Shamal with a big smile on her face.

"Yeah? Well, just to be sure..." Signum pushes off the bed, crosses to the door, and flips the light switch. She scans the room and the only living things in sight are her family. She turns the light on with a weary relieved sigh, knowing that his nightmare has truly come to an end. "I've been fighting Cypha for so long, I guess it's hard to just let it go. But sometimes I feel like I'm the only one looking for her and that I am the only one who can stop her."

"Signum you are never alone," Shamal reassured. "But if Cypha really does return, we'll be ready."

"Thank you everyone."

"Anyway you should get some rest."

Signum smiled. "Sounds like a good idea." The tired knight walks out of the room to her comfy bed.

Vita jumps up on the bed. "Okay, now she's better," she says rolling violently on the bed. "Now what about me! I'm dying here. ACHOO!"

Hayate, Rein and Agito breaks into hysterical laughter at Vita's expense. As she trails off Hayate looks at Shamal.

"What is it?" Asks Hayate.

"The reagent didn't trigger itself. There was a signal. Somebody triggered it from outside."


End file.
